SDCC: The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies Panel Description

Saturday Peter Jackson and some of the cast members of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies were on hand at Hall H to discuss the movie. As is usual for these things, none of it is made available to the public (keep thinking that would change each year) but at least have a description of the thirty minute or so panel. It started with a 360 degree reveal of the scroll panorama (video below) for the film, the teaser trailer and then a Q&A with the cast. Chances are the scroll image and teaser will be released very soon, maybe even this week. Full details here and here, highlights below.

Phillippa Boyen Teases The Hobbit: There and Back Again

In an interview with Empire Magazine Philippa Boyens, one of the writers for The Hobbit trilogy, teases a bit about events in final film The Hobbit: There and Back Again. Not much is revealed, especially for anyone that has read the novel.

“I can legitimately say right now that the third film doesn’t exist,” [Philippa Boyens] stressed before the questions started rolling in. “Pete’s cutting it. As an entity, it’s coming together. Actually that’s not true - we have a rough assembly, so to speak, of the shape of the film and the performances. I am excited, because one of the storylines I care a lot about is the Thorin one."

“Richard Armitage is extraordinary, as Thorin descends into madness,” she said of The Hobbit: There And Back Again’s dwarfish denouement.

Asked about the reasons for that Lake-town cliffhanger, Boyens explained that as a “natural break” in the story it was “the most obvious place to end the second film”. She added: “It felt so natural that I got a shock when the audience got a shock! If you can imagine what transpires next and what’s coming, it’s quite a huge chunk of storytelling. Not only that, but you enter into the tone of the third film, which is very definitely - as is the book, by the way - moving towards the world of Middle-earth as it becomes in Lord Of The Rings. Some dark stuff goes on.”

And what of the dwarves' decision to make that most elementary of movie errors: splitting up? “We made that decision [so we would] experience the attack on Lake-town through the eyes of people we've come a long way with,” she said. “We wanted some of the dwarves to understand what happened in that firestorm, that holocaust that rains down upon Lake-town. Bofur (James Nesbitt) comes more into his own in the third film. A rift begins to open up. And I can’t say much more without going into spoilers for film three, but it’s primarily because we needed him to be there when the dragon attacks."

Interviews with Armitage, Boyens, Turner and O'Gorman

Tonight The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug premieres with midnight showings in the US (and assume elsewhere). The interviews continue, this time with Richard Armitage who discusses the "Shakesperean" path Thorin Oakenshield takes. Trilogy writer Philippa Boyens talks about the inclusion of the new female character Tauriel and casting of Evangeline Lilly for the role. Finally Aiden Turner (Kili) and Dean O'Gorman (Fili) discuss filming the movie via a video interview. Hit the links for the details.

Links: Armitage | Boyens | Turner and O'Gorman

Jackson, Boyens Teases The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition Additions

In an interview with Empire Magazine, director Peter Jackson and his co-writer Phillippa Boyens teased some of the additional scenes that have been added to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition that is expected this holiday season. The August issue of Empire with more about The Desolation of Smaug hits newsstands on Thursday.

"You are going to get some serious Dwarvish disrespect of the elves at Rivendell," says Jackson, echoing what he previously said to us during our Unexpected Journey video interviews (see below).

"You are going to get more of Hobbiton," says producer / co-writer Philippa Boyens. "We always wanted to wend our way through Hobbiton, but in the end Bilbo has to run out of the door."

"You are going to get more Goblin Town, and the Great Goblin singing his song," adds Fran Walsh, Jackson's other half and fellow screenwriter. "It is a great song, but it was just another delay in terms of moving the story along."

"A number one hit from the Goblin King," laughs Jackson. "Barry Humphries is going to rise up the charts."

"We are putting things in the extended cut that are going to play straight into the second film," explains Jackson, "like this character Girion, who is defending [the city of] Dale using black arrows against Smaug. And the black arrows play a part in an ongoing story, for they are the one thing that can pierce the dragon's hide."

"There are also issues with [king of the elves] Thranduil (Lee Pace)," Jackson adds. "We get some of the reason why he and the dwarves had a falling out - to do with these white gems..."

Desolation of Smaug Editing Done, Has Gandalf Back Story

For those very familiar with The Hobbit, a story point left out of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is detailing exactly how Gandalf got involved in Thorin's quest. In the novel and LOTR Appendices Gandalf found Thrain (Thorin's father and a Ring Bearer) dying near the Necromancer's HQ of Dol Guldur. Before dying Thrain gave Galdalf the map and key to reclaim the Lonely Mountains for his people. Vulture spoke with The Hobbit co-writers Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens who explained that this bit of Middle-Earth history will be seen in The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. Jackson also said on Smaug "We've shot it, we've cut it, and we just need to refine it".

"We did try it at the front of this movie, and then we moved it," [Boyens] said. "...it's very important that we're going to be doing that. We will be meeting Thráin, and it may be in unfortunate circumstances. It may involve torture. The discovery of who or what is in Dol Guldur is a fantastic part of the storytelling, so yes, of course we went there."

"There's a lot of potential, isn't there?" Jackson teased. "You never know what we've already filmed as well. But there's certainly a lot of great material, and we'll make good use of it."

Philippa Boyens On Choices Made for The Hobbit Script

Philippa Boyens, the lovely co-writer of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. spoke with Collider about some of the various choices that were made in taking the children's book The Hobbit and converting it for the big screen. Below are few of her comments or can read the entire interview here.

...I think one of the most incredible moments to happen in the Tolkien canon happens in that little story when Bilbo doesn’t kill Gollum. And as Gandalf goes on to point out, the pity of Bilbo ruled the fate of many. It is an extraordinary moment and I think it’s extraordinarily played by Martin Freeman. I think the notion that the seeds of impending doom exist within the film. But you are putting your finger on something that is really important, and it’s something that as writers we knew going in, which is how to tackle this story, which was written as a childrens story. Now that it’s set against the greatest trilogy, which came first. I’m pretty sure that if we hadn’t done the Lord of the Rings first this would be a very different film.

Philippa Boyens Talks Writing the Hobbit

The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies co-writer Philippa Boyens sat down to discuss the films with Bleeding Cool.

Philippa Boyens Talks About Writing The Hobbit

In an article with New Zealand Stuff, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey co-writer Philippa Boyens discussed returning to Middle-Earth, handling various story elements and why they decided to invent a new character for the films.

On returning to Middle-Earth:
When asked, there's a long pause before she answers. "I loved the world. I loved [JRR] Tolkien's writing. [But] I think there was a quality about myself where I felt like 'I'd done it'," she says while in Wellington. "But that feeling didn't last very long because The Hobbit is a whole other fantasy really, a whole other work. Once we got into it and started writing it I felt really good about it and then I started loving it more and more. It was a natural process of falling back in love."

New The Hobbit Pics for Tolkien Week

Tolkien Week has more or less officially kicked off in celebration of the 75th Anniversary of The Hobbit which was published on September 21, 1927. The week ends with Hobbit Day on September 22 to mark the birthdays of Bilbo and Frodo. This Wednesday the next trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will debut so it seems like a good time for new stills from the movie. USA Today has published eight new stills from the movie with comments from trilogy writer Philippa Boyens. All 8 can be viewed here. The one comment that provided new insight into the movie is for Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy), a character that is not in The Hobbit book but appeared in the Lord of the Rings novel.

The wizard Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy) is only mentioned in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit book once, but Boyens had enough to go on to boost his role in the new movie series, and she feels he’s going to become a well-loved character. “He’s not at all like Gandalf,” Boyens says. “There’s a power and danger and sharpness and wits and cunning even about Gandalf that you sense immediately, whereas Radagast is much quieter and gentler. You could mistakenly think he’s not even a wizard or that he might not have any powers of his own, and then you discover that he does.”

SDCC 2012: More Cast, Crew Interviews

More cast and crew interviews have been posted online from the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con (1st wave here). In an interesting (but hard to hear) video interview with Richard Armitage as he discussed his role and the Tolkien novels with The One Ring. In addition the SDCC cast and crew spoke with Collider about the movie. Hit the links or watch video and read highlights below.

Highlights
- Peter Jackson: Very early in discussions with studio about shooting more material from the LOTR Appencies to either add to There and Back Again, for extended editions are break into third movie.
- Peter Jackson: Movie tone is in between the darker Lord of the Rings trilogy and the children's amusing tone of The Hobbit.
- Martin Freeman: Became aware of the Hobbit size scale once started filming at Lake Town which is populated by normal sized humans.

SDCC 2012: The Hobbit Panel Video

Below is the full The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey panel that was held Saturday at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con. The video does not include the 12 minutes of movie footage (summary here) that was shown due to copyright but it does show the Q&A that followed.

SDCC 2012: The Hobbit Panel with Movie Footage

Saturday was a big day for the San Diego Comic-Con as lots of movie panels were held including the panel for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey where 12 and half minutes of The Hobbit footage were shown. The footage has not been posted online but Peter Jackson indicated that at least some of it would be used in an upcoming production video. The info below is culled from Heat Vision, Collider and The One Ring.

Footage Description
- Shot of the Shire as voice over of Gandalf saying "Far to the east lies..."
- Gandalf, Bilbo and dwarves at Bag End discussing goal of recovering their treasure from the dragon Smaug with Thorin saying "Rumors have begun to spread,” he says, “The dragon Smaug has not been seen in many years… Perhaps the vast wealth of our people lies unprotected … perhaps it is time to take back Erebor!"
- Discussion of a plan with need of a burglar to steal a map from Smaug that will help with taking Erebor. Something Bilbo agrees with not realizing that is his purpose in the adventure.

SDCC 2012: Cast, Crew Video Interviews

Saturday was the panel for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con. Before it was held, Peter Jackson and company held a series of interviews with media outlets. The longest was the Andy Serkis one (see here) with a full panel cast doing an interview with Entertainment Weekly. The rest were around a few minutes in length as each person talked about various aspects of the film.

Peter Jackson and Phillippa Boyen commented on their approach to writing The Hobbit film and adapting the book (with appendices). Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield) spoke a six foot person being cast as a dwarf and that making people who have gravitas and size helped when the actors are "shrunk" for scenes along with new techniques used to film since 3D meant force perspective (used for LOTR) was not possible for most scenes. Sir Ian McKellen spoke about how returning to a "younger" Gandalf makes no difference for a 7000 year old character, his surprise that he was asked to reprise the role, and enjoyment of working in New Zealand.